This gigantic passenger liner was supposed to be the gateway to America for thousands of eager immigrants and a pleasure cruise for some of the richest people in the world. Unfortunately, for most of these people it turned out to be the casket that took them to a watery grave!

This 269m-long liner was cruising towards New York when it couldn't avoid an iceberg in the middle of the freezing Atlantic Ocean. This caused a few rivets below the water line to pop out and slowly the ship's lower portion began to flood. The ship eventually sank, and 1513 people lost their lives to this mechanical blunder on that cold April night in 1912.

Photo: Reuters

LZ 129 Hindenburg

Manufactured in Nazi Germany under Hitler's watchful eye, Hindenburg class airships were the Third Reich's pride in the sky. However, on a fateful May evening in 1936 at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey, the LZ 129 carrying 97 people caught fire, killing 36--including a ground crew.

There are many theories surrounding this disaster, most of them focussed on a possible hydrogen leak. It was not long after this accident that zeppelins were slowly phased out.

Photo: Hootingyard.org

Columbia Space Shuttle

This space shuttle, which was a veteran of 27 successful NASA missions, was destroyed while re-entering the Earth's atmosphere on its 28th mission. All seven crew members, including Indian-born Kalpana Chawla, died in the resulting explosion.

There are several theories explaining the crash, the most prominent of which is that the shuttle's vertical tail fin broke apart because a piece of foam hit the left wing during launch. Other theories suggest possible sabotage and acts of terrorism. However, it is unlikely that this was anything but a simple mechanical failure.

Photo: Reuters

Ford Edsel

Conceptualized in the mid-1950s, the Edsel brand of cars was supposed to take over the American automobile landscape. It had everything--a contemporary design, top-of-the-line accessories, reasonable pricing and the then-reliable Ford brand--going for it.

Unfortunately, it proved to be a massive flop and Ford lost the $400,000,000 it had spent on this car's development, forcing production to stop after three short and highly unsuccessful years. So much for the car of the future!

This gigantic passenger liner was supposed to be the gateway to America for thousands of eager immigrants and a pleasure cruise for some of the richest people in the world. Unfortunately, for most of these people it turned out to be the casket that took them to a watery grave!

This 269m-long liner was cruising towards New York when it couldn't avoid an iceberg in the middle of the freezing Atlantic Ocean. This caused a few rivets below the water line to pop out and slowly the ship's lower portion began to flood. The ship eventually sank, and 1513 people lost their lives to this mechanical blunder on that cold April night in 1912.